The present invention relates to a taping machine and especially to taping machines suitable for use in applying tape to wire harnesses.
In various industrial applications it is necessary to connect various parts together using flexible connectors, for example electrical cables or flexible pipes, the connecting means being bundled together for a greater part of the connecting length for ease of positioning, etc. It is known to hold such bundles of wires or other flexible connecting members together by winding a suitable tape, for example plastics tape or textile tape carrying an adhesive coating, spirally round the bundles so that the turns of the tape overlap and form bundles of wires or flexible connectors. When taping wires together in this way, the end product is commonly referred to as a wiring harness. The bundles of wire can conveniently be supported by appropriately placed brackets or straps. This is especially important in the automobile industry (and also in the aircraft industry) where various wires originating for example at an instrument panel are grouped together and the bundle so collected threaded through the automobile (or aircraft) body to the various downstream end, for example control systems for the engine. For example, the wires may be connected to control switches on the instrument panel of a vehicle and the remote ends connected to control means for the vehicle or may be connected to instruments at the control panel, the remote ends being connected to appropriate parts of the vehicle. In either case signals are transmitted along the wires which in many cases may have to extend from front to rear of the vehicle, to various parts of the engine, doors, and the like. It is important to ensure that at all regions the various wires are properly grouped together and supported, for example adjacent the engine, so that they are not subject to unacceptable rubbing and/or wear and are properly protected against vibration and moisture by the tape wound around the bundle. As well as the protective function, the tape gives firmness and body to the harness and allows the assembly of harness configurations which are precisely adapted for convenient installation in an automobile.
Heretofore, the bundles have been taped manually or using an extremely heavy and cumbersome taping apparatus driven by belts or chains. It has therefore been a very slow and labour intensive operation, requiring considerable strength to make the bundles and make the wiring harnesses more rigid. The harnesses may for example be assembled on wiring looms or the like. The tapes may be plastic or metallic tapes or textile tapes, adhesive coated if necessary.